


Jingle Bells Ventus's Fart Smells and Where the Hell is Roxas

by speakgreektome (epicionly)



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Brothers, F/M, Family, Gen, KH Secret Santa, Road Trips, Vacation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-30
Updated: 2013-12-30
Packaged: 2018-01-06 17:34:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,293
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1109635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/epicionly/pseuds/speakgreektome
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ahh, Christmas. Like every other family vacation time, except for the fact that two “families” with absolutely no connections to each other have somehow managed to switch their children. A++ parenting.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Jingle Bells Ventus's Fart Smells and Where the Hell is Roxas

**Author's Note:**

> Biiiiiigg thanks to [Jay](http://yourhandiheld.tumblr.com) and [Awesome](http://notsollux.tumblr.com) for not only being into Kingdom Hearts with me, but also for supporting me, reading what I had to write, and offer their thoughts when I was trying to finish this.
> 
> Beta: [Jay who always saves my life and also has lots of cute headcanons (repeated twice for maximum effect)](http://yourhandiheld.tumblr.com)
> 
> Author’s Note: It is literally my goal to make you think various combinations of ‘oh Roxas’, ‘oh Sora’, and ‘oh Terra’ every time the situation calls for it. Enjoy the ride.

Nothing got Sora more excited than new things. His best friend held similar interests, even if Sora wasn’t at all half as ambitious as Riku. Once the two of them grew up, the plan went to finding themselves: travelling the world, anywhere not their own little area of California. Roxas, on the other hand, was happy enough with the beach. As were their parents, because for every summer as long as either of them could remember, everyone only ever stayed around the land of ice cream stands, artist streets, and blistering parks.

So it surprised him one day when their neighbour arrived home from work and called Sora downstairs. Sure, Sora was friendlier with them than Roxas was (making friends was not something he really excelled at; at six, Sora had been the one to master the art and had friends from all around the block), but to the point that both of them often were invited for dinner and got to know Mickey and Minnie whenever they came for a visit—or, “The King and Queen”, as Donald and Goofy called them both fondly, a joke from their old college days. Still, whatever forever.

In the next five seconds, all Roxas could hear over the thrums of the 8tracks playlist was Sora shrieking, “We have a trailer!”

He also heard, five seconds after that, Sora thundering into the house and clambering up the stairs with both hands and feet. “Roxas! Roxas!”

 _brb sora_ , he typed to Xion, who sent him back a smiley face, just as the door to their shared bedroom slammed open and Sora hollered out with a wheeze at the end, “We have a trailer!”

“Congrats,” Roxas said dryly, yanking down one of his headphones so he could hear him out properly. Sora’s grin had spread even wider and he looked like the man at Wonderland Florists who called himself the Cheshire Cat. His brother always seemed to find some way to look like either the happiest person in the world or the smuggest. “Now you can go live in the woods for real.”

“Seriously, Roxas!” Sora hopped off from the ground and bounced on his toes. “Trailer! Trailer! Do you think Goofy’ll take us out for a spin?” No necessary response; Sora was already out of the room, and pretty much rolling back down the stairs.

_> >>goofy got a trailer_

<<< _I bet Sora’s super excited about that! :)_

_< <<What’s it look like?_

>>> _uhhhh_

He stood up from his desk, peering out between the open blinds at the window to the sight of Sora in the back yard scrambling up over the fence. Then he made his way to the other side of the house to peer out that window, shifting his head over to squint over the glare of outdoor Christmas lights.

Roxas would’ve liked to say in any circumstance very positive things about what had no doubt been a decent purchase, but whatever compliments that may have sprouted to his brain died instantly. The travel trailer, in all its glory, looked every bit the bulky and the kind of ugly that Roxas had seen in movies. People were actually supposed to sleep in that?

>> _> ugly as sin_

 _That’s rude!_ Xion chided him, because unlike Roxas, Xion was a fairly kind person to everyone. Sometimes, Roxas wondered about all the positivity in his life.

>>> _i’m just honest_

<<< _Liar. I bet you’ll be excited to go too._

 _who says i’d want to?_ Roxas asked, and was about to state every reason for staying at home instead of being taken from material comforts just as Sora burst through the door behind him one more time and triumphantly yelled, “Goofy says we can come with them!”

\--

If Sora loved anything, he loved road trips. True, he’d never been on a road trip before; but really, like they always said, trying new things was good for you. If nothing, at least it’d be a great enough adventure to wax tales about. During the entire trip, he’d be cramped with Roxas in the backseat; they’d fight over who got the leg room and kick at the backs of seats until Donald started shouting. Both of them would probably fall asleep (you weren’t supposed to be in a travel trailer when the car was moving, apparently) and wake up with cricks in their necks and drool-mouths, and Sora was going to love it. Roxas might not, but then again, Roxas liked what he liked and so did Sora, so that was all right.

Riku was mad about it though.

“Have fun,” he said shortly when Sora brought over what he’d thought was great news. He was always kind of a stick in the mud; when they were younger, Riku would only play one-on-one games and refused to let even Roxas hang out with them.

“Yeah, I will,” Sora replied smugly, and elbowed him. Riku had a habit of being short of words when he was mad, but Sora had never really known him to stay like that for long. “Jealous? We’re going to go to Chicago. _Chicago, Illinois._ Gangsters. Pew-pew.”

“I doubt it. Chicago is all buildings, maybe a free zoo—it’s better in the summer,” Riku said exasperatedly, glancing at Sora’s finger guns like he didn’t know what to do with him. “What are you going to do, live in the park for a month and eat pizza?”

“Sounds legit.” Sora grinned at him until the side of Riku’s frowny mouth twitched. _Bingo._

“In the middle of winter?” Riku shook his head, and walked to his closet door. It took a bit of rooting around before he found what he was looking for, tossing a thick scarf at Sora’s head. “You’ll freeze to death. Didn’t I tell you to keep eating more?”

“But gangsters,” Sora protested, wrapping it around his neck with gusto, because Riku was never going to get this back.

“You’re five, I swear,” Riku said, and shook his head. He did look a lot better about the whole thing, though, and stuck his hands in his pockets. “Have fun. Bring me some souvenirs or something.”

“Thanks,” Sora replied cheerily. “One pizza crust, coming up.”

Sora could feel it. This was gonna be the _best road trip ever._

\--

This was the _worst road trip ever._

Roxas’s winter itinerary did not involve him packed into the backseat of a car with his brother for hours at a time. Sora kicked him when he slept, had no respect for personal space, and drooled all over his shoulder so the back smelled of nothing but the stink. They ate fast food, cold fruit that had been packed before the trip, and “light” snacks that usually meant polishing off the entire package between the two of them as fast as they could. Enough competition filled your life when you were Sora’s brother, but by the third day, Roxas had aching limbs and legs, snapped about every little thing, and riled Sora into several shouting matches before they both sat on opposite sides of the car, sullen and grumpy in their puffy marshmallow coats.

This time, Donald got so fed up with them both that he made Goofy stop the car, and _both_ of them flinched, though Sora tried to protest his innocence. And like all the other times, Donald wasn’t having it.

“This is stupid,” Roxas said angrily under his breath, once it was over. Both brothers had the great pleasure of getting grounded once they got back home, because that’d be the situation once their parents knew how badly they’d acted out. Roxas bet by the time home was on the horizon, it’d be all but forgotten, but at present, it didn’t help the humiliation, abject horror, and shamed embarrassment at present. Donald had a way with words that made grave reflection an instinct.

“ _You’re_ stupid,” Sora shot at him with an _hmpth_. He hated being kept indoors like Roxas hated being forced to interact with people he didn’t like. That his attempt at being lofty ended in chattering teeth gave Roxas only the tiniest sense of vindictive satisfaction. Sora dealt worse with the cold of winter, as much as he loved playing with snow. “Stuuuupid,” Sora shot again.

Roxas bristled so hard that his breath was coming out in puffs. The air conditioner at mid-blast helped keep the windows from fogging up, but the heat scarcely reached him enough to stop him from retorting, “Yeah? Well, your snoring is stupid.”

“Your _hair_ is stupid.”

“Real creative, Sora. How can hair be stupid, stupid?”

“The way you style your hair is stupid, then,” Sora insisted. He’d never really understood why Roxas would wake up to spend hours a day on his hair, just as he didn’t understand why Roxas took time to figure out what to wear the next day the night before instead of throwing on a shirt and shorts like Sora always did.

Casting a withered look down at the ugly giant zipper clown boots on Sora’s feet, Roxas glanced back up at the rat’s nest on Sora’s head. “At least it’s better than yours,” he snorted. “Why don’t you actually comb it for once?”

“Well,” Sora said, eyebrows furrowed, “You’re a rock head!”

What the heck? “How is that even an insult?” Roxas demanded.

“ _Rock brain_.”

“Are you serious?”

“Rock _salt._ ”

“That’s stupid,” Roxas said, but he could feel a smile on his face.

“ _You’re_ stupid, Rock Sass.” Sora grinned along, stupidly pleased at his stupid pun. Roxas wanted to either punch him in the shoulder, or smother his face with a pillow.

Nothing Roxas thought of at the moment gave him any inspiration for an equally stupid brilliant pun, so he settled for picking up the crackers on Roxas’s Side that had been the catalyst for their last fight. He held it out for Sora as a truce. “Here.”

“Thanks,” Sora said, immediately dunking his entire hand in and coming out of the box with a fistful.

“You have the greediest hands in the world,” Roxas said, watching as Sora stuffed his face. “Greediest mouth too, you dork.”

“Fanks,” Sora the chipmunk said, spitting out some bits of salivated cracker out. “Ah fry.”

“Gross, Sora.” Roxas threw the tissue box at him.

“You’re welcome,” Sora said cheerily, half-swallowing. Or at least, what Roxas thought he said, before he tossed the tissue box right back.

It ended up turning into a game. Roxas threw the box so Sora would miss it on the rebound, and caught it again before Sora could get at it. Sora called that sneaky and just flung it deliberately at Roxas’s hair. Roxas ducked, and unfortunately it hit Donald square in the back of his head.

“Hey!” Donald squawked, turning around furiously to see who had thrown it.

“Roxas did it,” said Sora.

“Sora is a lying liar,” Roxas said.

“If both of you don’t give me some peace and quiet, I’m going to _get mad!”_ It might’ve held some more significance had Donald not threatened the same thing the other times, clenching a fist gloved in warm mittens and shaking it at them. Bundled up to his nose in winter clothes, he looked miserable, and definitely worse for wear.

Goofy chortled from his end. “Just give ’em a rest. They’re kids.”

Donald squinted angrily at them when they blinked at him, trying to reassert that yes, they were kids and Donald should definitely go easy on them. “Well,” he said grudgingly, though not before slowly giving them both the evil eye one after the other and back again, “Just dial it down. I’m going to sleep now,” he announced. “Wake me up when we stop.”

The back was silent amidst Goofy’s humming.

“I bet you he’s going to forget all about it in a few hours,” Sora whispered finally, when Donald’s head started nodding off. “A dreaaaaam. It was only just a dreaaaaamm.” He waved his mittens in the air as though to cast Sleepra, like in that video game he’d been religiously playing only for Roxas to beat his kill count in three days.

“That’s not gonna work,” Roxas said wryly. Goofy caught his eye in the rear-view mirror and winked. Roxas grinned.

“ _You’re_ not gonna work,” Sora scoffed, concentrating.

Roxas rolled his eyes. This was _embarrassing._ He knocked the hands out of the air. “Sora, this is getting old. You’re a _kid_.”

“Nu-uh,” Sora insisted, smacking him back, but on the face. “I’m fourteen.”

Fine. Two could play at that game. “Yu-uh,” he said, even though he was secretly glad that only Goofy bore witness to Roxas being anything but cool. “So am I, but you don’t see me being ridiculous.”

“Double nu-uh,” Sora said obnoxiously, stubbornly, so Roxas pinched his nose in response and got his hair ruined for his troubles. Dammit Sora.

\--

They ended up stopping at a rest stop not even half an hour later.

Sora had dropped fitfully asleep onto Roxas’s shoulder like always, the first to fall asleep and the earliest to wake up in the morning, and Roxas would have been lying if he hadn’t kind of dozed off on that natural gravity-defying hair—which really made for a scratchy, if not decent pillow. Any ire between them usually disappeared after a good fight. For the record, though, it was really hard to do anything asides from a few kicks and elbow jabs when you were in Goofy’s car. Goofy knew they weren’t serious anyway; after they’d almost woken Donald up, though, he’d genially offered them some fruit snacks for a bit more silence, and Roxas found himself wondering why Goofy didn’t step in more often if it’d save Donald the trouble of yelling.

Anyway, the car parked and bladder ready to burst, Roxas casually released and shrugged off his seatbelt. He shoved Sora gently off to the side and took care to lower him (not that Sora appreciated it, from how he took up the whole seat), and climbed out of the car.

Leaning against the side of his car and no doubt stretching his legs, Goofy was chewing on some gum, letting his breath form clouds in the night air. From what Roxas knew by past conversation—Sora usually took up both Donald and Goofy’s time—Goofy had served in the military before he’d moved next door. Roxas didn’t understand the gist of it all that much; still, it was hard to picture Goofy being anything but _Goofy._

“Don’t take too long,” he reminded Roxas with a smile when he caught sight of him.

“It’s _cold_ ,” Roxas said. It came out accusatory, but Goofy only laughed, and puffed a quick cloud at his direction like a dragon in response.

“Ahyuk, hyuk. Then you’d better hurry before Donald tells us to get a move on.” He paused thoughtfully. “We’ll probably be staying here for the night. You and Sora can have the trailer.”

That sounded good. That meant that they could actually use the trailer, though Roxas had no doubt Sora would take all of the space. “It’s okay. Donald can take it. You’ll be in the car too, right?” The trailer looked way too small to fit Goofy comfortably.

“Don’t take too long,” Goofy cautioned with a smile. “It’s past your bedtime.”

On another occasion, Roxas would’ve grumped. Goofy, on the other hand, knew exactly how fast either Sora or him fell asleep, so he nodded. “’kay.”

Roxas’s boots scraped at the parking lot slush and sunk straight into the fresh snow on the way that hadn’t already been trampled by Donald’s own small water-proof ones. It looked like this was one of the smaller rest stops—there was a single street light (rest stop light?), and another car opposite their own (didn’t look very big, but then again, Goofy’s at least always smelled nice)—but it was almost pitch black night now, and kind of scary-looking. Pressing on through the snow that was taller than his knees (ugh now his socks were gonna get wet), he was at least thankful it wasn’t snowing at all. Just the chill bit through, so he hurried under the concrete awning and through the bathroom doors.

Sleep dabbed at his eyes by the time he finished, and Donald had long since returned to the car. The temperature had dropped some, but Roxas hardly noticed it save the chilly wind at his cheeks. Struggling to stay awake as he tried to catch in a massive yawn, he stumbled through the snow.

With an insistent tug rather than actually full-arm opening the door (Goofy’s car was always iffiest during winter), it swung open. Roxas dropped fully lengthwise on the backseat, and someone helped shut the door, but not before draping something warm—a blanket?—over him.

\--

Lunch was fast food. Again. Aqua really didn’t approve of it when there were perfectly good sandwiches Master Eraqus had made for them all since the first day just waiting to be eaten in the cooler, but Terra had been determined (“Live a little,” he’d grinned with a nonchalant shrug of his shoulders). Considering the sandwiches had been meant for all three of them to eat together once they got to warmer territories, she supposed these could wait for a little while longer.

She glanced at the clock. Master Eraqus usually frowned on waking up late because it bred bad habits and was a poor show of discipline, but Ven had been utterly exhausted last night. First vacation in a year since both Terra and Aqua had graduated university and started work; it looked like it had been long overdue for Ven too.

The first thing Aqua said when she looked over her shoulder at the sleeping boy in the backseat was, “Terra, that’s not Ven.”

Since Terra was driving roughly 100 MPH on the highway with _I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas_ playing for the sixteenth time since they’d driven off from the last the rest stop that hadn’t been last night, he said, “What? That’s nice,” without really thinking about it and changed lanes.

Aqua turned around for another look, the light, contemplative atmosphere around her disappearing fast. While she wasn’t the type to panic, right now, she figured she might’ve been someone prepared to either learn or start trying. “Terra,” she repeated, and this time, “Stop the car.”

“We’re on the highway, you know that?” Terra said. She glanced at him. Clutching the steering wheel like he was afraid she was going to take it away from him, he looked at his side-view mirror to check the oncoming traffic.  His thumbs locked. “It’s gonna be a while until the next exit.”

 _I’m driving, not you_ , was what Aqua translated.

“Terra,” she said, voice remarkably calm despite all, but in her head, she was already thinking about where it was that this could’ve happened—at the rest stop where they’d stopped for lunch? No; Ven had been sleeping the entire time, and hadn’t budged an inch. It must have been last night, when Ven and Terra had stopped for a washroom break.

“Alright, alright,” Terra was saying. “Calm down.”

Within five minutes he had them on the shoulder of the highway with the emergency lights on, and the brake on. Then he turned around casually to take a look himself.

Aqua was as patient as she could force herself to be; Master Eraqus had always lauded her ability with it whereas Terra had always been unable to wait anything out and Ven had been even worse, but now she held her breath. She watched and waited until the irate tension in Terra’s brow and the frown down on his face disappeared. It took a further three seconds before his mouth dropped open and he was at a loss for words.

 “Shit,” Terra said, and he sounded just like Aqua felt. “We gotta go back.”

\--

Roxas’s elbows were digging into Sora’s side. Usually, Sora bore it with good grace (he did!) until Roxas’s back was turned (just desserts!), but tonight those elbows and even that kneecap were slamming all over. Once a hand started slapping his face, Sora had enough.

He elbowed him right back, just as (okay maybe twice) as fiercely.

Then Roxas kneed him in the shoulder.

“Hey!” he snapped, eyes open just as Roxas’s had. Sora might’ve been an early riser, and usually he was a kind, patient, and tolerable riser too—he didn’t exactly aim to karate chop someone if they woke him up wrong like Roxas did, nor did he immediately yank the sheets off Roxas’s caterpillar corpse until he’d yanked open the curtains to let in the light first—but right now? “What was that for?”

Instead of a sarcastic, witty response, Roxas just stared at him like a goldfish. His eyes were wide and his mouth opened and closed without words.

“You _elbowed_ me!” Sora said crossly, despite the fact that he too had done the same thing (shh, they were ignoring that, and besides, _everyone knew it wasn’t Sora’s fault this time). “_ Just—cut it out!”

Roxas just stared back at him, eyebrows furrowing against themselves in a look between utter incredulity and something else. Instead of a sharp retort when he opened his mouth again, Roxas leaned away from Sora, almost pressing himself to the car door at a slow, purposeful pace. His eyes flashed at Goofy and Donald who were talking amongst themselves on the next exit, and then back at Sora. “Who are you?” he demanded.

“I’m Sora, duh?” Oh, now Sora knew what he was getting at. “Oh, ha ha, very funny, Roxas.” He leaned in, only to blink in surprise as Roxas glared at him in the way he did when he was in half-mocking anger. Which…Roxas hadn’t done since they were ten.

“I’m serious…Sora,” Roxas said.

Sora gave him a look. “So am I.”

“Would you two quit fighting already?” Donald demanded from the front. “If it’s not about the same things, it’s stupid things.”

“No, seriously,” Roxas said, looking miffed in the way he did when he didn’t like what was going on; which, he hadn’t looked since the last time Sora had shoved him into a spotlight. It had been on their fourteenth birthday, things had happened, and Sora wasn’t ever allowed to do whatever it was he’d done again, though he still didn’t understand why not. “My name is _Ventus._ But you can call me Ven.”

“That’s a nice name, Ven,” said Goofy appreciatively as he drove the car down a ramp.

To Sora’s surprise, Roxas’s face turned from frustration to meek embarrassment. “Thank you,” he said, almost shyly, ducking his head with a small smile.

This was hilarious. “Hah!” Sora said. “You said thank you!” Roxas often said he wasn’t a people person, but here he was, accepting compliments like no big deal. “See! _See_!”

Normally, Roxas scowled or rolled his eyes and they’d fight about how childish Sora was, even though Sora really didn’t understand why Roxas was so determined to grow up anyway. Take your time, enjoy having fun, and face up to responsibilities when they came, not before. Wasn’t that less stressful, and happier? But this time, Roxas stared at him, as though Sora was the one who was confused.

“Yeah,” Roxas said slowly, and (wait what) patiently. “Because he gave me a compliment, I appreciated it, and saying ‘thank you’ is only natural.”

Sora just stared at him. “Did someone switch with you while I was sleeping?” he demanded, confused. Sora’s usual first reaction to weird things was to hit them, like that time with Leon’s computer (Leon being their rather grouchy _other_ next-door-neighbour who secretly loved puppies and had made Sora swear never to tell, and who also was kind of Sora’s role model).

Whacking a Roxas who didn’t retaliate wasn’t nice, though.

“Roxas,” he said, carefully trying to figure out what was wrong with him by the power of intense eye contact, “You’re acting _really weird._ ”

“Aww phooey,” Donald snickered. “Don’t mind Sora. He needs lessons on humility and manners, anyway.”

“Hey!” Sora said. “I’m polite!”

“Not really,” said Roxas, exasperatedly.

It was only after that that it all clicked.

“Wait,” Sora said slowly. “You’re not…my brother?”

Possibly-Not-Roxas-With-a-Funny-Name gave him a look of all looks. “You can’t even tell me apart from your own _brother?_ ”

“Well,” Sora defended fiercely, “Now I can!”

The boy shook his head. “I’m sorry for the mix-up,” he said kindly. Sora thought he was full of it. “And I’m kind of in the wrong car.” He glanced at Donald who had turned around in alarm, and Goofy who was wearing a very concerned expression. “Could I please borrow a cell phone?”

\--

“How would you lose him?” Terra demanded as they passed by yet another exit. That one wouldn’t lead them anywhere to some kind residential neighbourhood or parking lot to backtrack, and a U-turn on the highway was just out of the question. Especially since, while Terra did do stunts for a living, he was kind of betting his insurance wouldn’t cover this.

Aqua just gave him a look. Terra didn’t even have to look to feel it bearing purposefully into the side of his face.

“Okay,” Terra amended, conceding, because when _Aqua_ looked at you like that, you knew you’d fucked up somehow. “How could _I_ lose him? But you were still in the car with him before I got back from the washroom.”

“How could we both lose him,” Aqua replied finally, and shook her head. She sounded frustrated with herself. “They’re not even wearing the same clothes.”

Terra didn’t even pay attention to what he wore half the time, because usually it was a grey shirt and whatever obnoxious combination to piss off wardrobe. “Huh,” he said understandably, vowing next time to make sure everyone was wearing what they should’ve been next time.

He caught Aqua glancing back at the boy sitting in the back, but asides from that, offered no more words. The silence in the car was palpable at best. Not really what Terra wanted to have when finally all their vacation days had matched up enough that they could take Ven out for a get-together like they’d promised.

“Should we wake him?” she asked finally, voice soft.

“Wait until we’ve stopped,” Terra said, drumming his fingers and glancing up at the rear-view mirror. Not-Ven almost passed for their own at a glance, which was probably why Terra missed it in the first place. Then again, not many kids woke up with that hair naturally, and he had it on good understanding that Ven’s hair only got that way because Terra and Aqua ruffled it as much as they did. “If he wakes up, he’s probably gonna think we kidnapped him.”

“You’ve been in one too many films,” Aqua told him, and in reply, he offered a sheepish smile. She still looked concerned. “How long until the next stop?” she asked, even as she went through the GPS. She’d long since given up on the map.

“Well,” Terra said, frowning and furrowing his eyebrows. He’d been the one driving because he’d been the most familiar with this route; one of the movies he’d body doubled in had taken place here. “If I remember correctly, uhhhh, ten minutes from now, I think? There should be a warehouse.”

“Isn’t that private property?” she asked, switching the GPS for her own phone. Terra was suddenly glad for the internet.

“It was abandoned when we shot the film,” Terra shrugged. “They don’t even store trucks in it anymore. Besides, we’re only really going to spend, what? Five minutes there? It’s gonna be okay.” In Terra’s opinion, things only really blew up on you when you made them more of a big deal than they actually were. “We’ll have the kid back with his parents, we’ll get Ven back, and enjoy our vacation. Ten years down the road, we’ll all look back at this and laugh.”

She didn’t answer at first. In fact, Aqua looked doubtful when he glanced out of the corner of his eye to take stock of her expression. “I don’t know…” she said at last. And then sighed, closing her eyes. “But alright.”

\--

Goofy had managed to find a rest stop where they could stop, and Donald had taken great pains with his ever used squawking to remind Sora and teach Ven why it was that you _did not fight in the back of the car._ They’d been forcefully removed from each other, both sporting some kind look worse for wear. Ven’s eye was purpling up and his lip swelling up, and Sora’s arms and knees were sporting interestingly large and oddly shaped bruises. Donald didn’t approve of either, and said, “Serves you both right,” when they complained about his bedside manner (Donald was a doctor).

After managing to calm Donald down enough to send him off to buy lunch, Goofy had then went off to find some ice for the both of them to press against their battle wounds, but not before pulling Sora aside.

“Sora,” Goofy said to him, “He’s on his own. Maybe you should be nicer.”

“It’s not my fault,” Sora said, folding his arms. He knew Goofy didn’t blame him at all—Goofy didn’t blame anyone, and he was the most forgiving person Sora had ever had the pleasure of meeting—but somehow he felt like he had to defend himself. “He’s suspicious. I want Roxas back.”

In all honesty, Sora wasn’t worried about Roxas at all. There had been lots of instances when they’d both been young and had gotten separated or lost. People said a lot about twins; that they could sense each other’s pain, had some sort of wayward connection. Sora just thought it all came down to trust and belief. And he believed (and knew very well) that Roxas could take care of himself.

Over a stranger in his car to Roxas though—that wasn’t even an option.

Goofy squeezed his shoulder. “We’ll get Roxas back, I promise. Why don’t you get to know him? Maybe you both will be friends.”

Sora just nodded jerkily.

Now, Sora was standing in front of Ven, who looked up at him with a glower, leaning back against the front car wheel. Sora didn’t think he liked that look, but it wasn’t like he could treat him like he did Roxas or Riku. Come to think of it, how did you even go talking to people who didn’t like a little roughhousing now and then?

“So your name’s Ven?” Sora asked finally, giving up and sitting next to Ven in the snow. Even in winter did Sora wear shorts (Donald had reemed him out for the choice, but it’d been too late to change and Sora refused to wear any of Roxas’s), and Sora realized his underwear was going to get wet.

“Yeah,” Ven said grumpily, folding his arms. He was a huge sore loser. If Roxas was here, at least he wouldn’t sulk as much as Ven. “Why’d you hit me?”

“Why’d you hit _me?”_

“Because you hit me first.”

Now _hold on a second_ —“No, you hit _me_ first.”

Ven gave him a puppy-dog glare. It was nothing on Roxas’s usual intensity, so Sora wasn’t bothered at all. You could even say Sora was _immune,_ but it also helped that one of Ven’s eyes was barely visible under the swelling.

This guy was actually kind of an asshole under his kind, polite personality—Sora just couldn’t explain it. It was just a feeling. No one was that nice or that big of a suck-up. Just something rubbed him off wrong. (Then again, that was how Sora and Riku became best friends, but that didn’t apply here).

“Sora,” Ven said slowly, “I don’t want to be mad, and I’ve been taught not to let it get the best of me,” – _Yeah right_ , thought Sora—“but you’re making this very hard.”

“Well, you’re making this hard too,” Sora snapped. “Give me back my brother.”

“For the last time, I don’t know where he is!”

“He has to be in your car somewhere or something!” Sora insisted, gesturing wildly with one hand. “There’s nowhere else he could be! You guys kidnapped him!”

“It’s a _mistake_ ,” Ven said, and he looked furious, huddling further, arms now wrapped around his knees. He almost adopted that pose Roxas did when he was upset, but instead, straightened. “And don’t you dare say that about Aqua and Terra.”

So Sora was a bad guy now? “Don’t be a jerk,” Sora grumped. “Now because of you, I’m _double-_ grounded.” All the exciting road trips things he’d been looking forward to with Roxas weren’t going to be with Roxas anymore. That kind of sucked.

“Lucky you,” Ven grumbled, touching his eye cautiously and flinched, hand jerking away. _Hah_ , Sora thought a bit meanly. “Master Eraqus is going to make me do repentance meditation.”

“Ven,” Sora said. He knew he should’ve been asking about those people he didn’t know, but right now, he really didn’t care and it really didn’t matter. “Why do you look so much like my brother?”

“Why does _your brother_ look so much like me?” Ven demanded. He’d stopped rubbing it in that Sora couldn’t recognize his own brother, but Sora still didn’t like him. “Can we talk about that? I don’t even have kids.”

“Why would you have kids?” Sora demanded, confused. He took another look at Ven, but all he could really see was some stranger who kind of looked like his brother. Roxas and Ven would look more like almost twins than Roxas and Sora, he thought, stung. “Aren’t you fourteen?”

Ven stared at him, and then up at the sky. “I’m _twenty_ ,” he said quietly. “And I’m in university.”

“What,” said Sora. And then he blinked, suddenly all pain forgotten. “You punch that bad _and_ you’re an adult?”

\--                                                                                                                                                         

Terra almost would’ve crashed the car into the one ahead of them in a spectacular wipeout had he not slammed the brakes in time. He pounded the horn with the exasperated flat of his palm. “What’s with drivers these days?”

The blaring woke their guest up enough for him to grumble out, “Sora, shut up and let me sleep!” Several wild kicks hit Terra’s seat hard enough that he almost floored it.

Considering Ven never kicked the seats (Terra had been convinced it was just an urban legend that all kids were difficult on long car rides), Terra had to blink, utterly bewildered.

In the rear-view mirror, the kid looked practically harmless. His face was relaxed, he hardly snored at all, and seemed like an otherwise quiet sleeper. It was like the aggressive nature to which Terra’s back had been indirectly privy belonged to someone else entirely. Look, Not-Ven was even huddling under his blankets like a good boy.

“Oh,” said Terra with the sudden great, wise understanding of their teacher. “So _that’s_ how you wake him up.”

Aqua snorted despite herself, trying to hide it under her sleeve. “Don’t,” she said, trying to be stern, but failing miserably. Her lips pressed up into her familiar soft smile; after a long morning of stressed tension, it was a relief to see.

The warehouse came into view, right along the ocean. It stretched maybe several miles in both length and width, devoid of the trucks and the sets and the people that Terra had come to associate every place he’d go for work. Somewhere along the line, the pavement gave way to concrete. Far from how he remembered it; the place was empty and disappointing. Snow buried half of it.

Then again, Terra really hadn’t come here for the sightseeing.

After parking the car and turning its engine off, Terra folded his arms and looked at Aqua, raising an eyebrow that read that he knew exactly what she actually was thinking.

She sent him back a look that said, “One of us has to be responsible.”

“Ouch,” Terra agreed. He shot a glance at the boy over his shoulder, then at Aqua, then at the boy again.

“Terra—”

Too late.  “Wakey wakey,” Terra said as he honked the horn three times. The third time was an afterthought, since there were three of them.

“I’m up!” Not-Ven promptly fell off the car seat in his alarm and into the space where legs would usually go, making a funny noise as he did so, and then a muffled barely contained frustration. “Sora!”

“You’re an infant,” Aqua chastened Terra, who sobered quickly. She turned to watch the boy unfurl himself from the constraints of the blankets with fierce, jerking movements until he managed to free his head and one arm. Reaching to help pull it further off him, she asked, “Are you alright?”

“Very _funny_ ,” the boy was grumbling, before he glanced up, glared, and then froze. In Terra’s opinion, he did kind of look like Ven even awake, but if you knew Ven, you could tell this wasn’t him. It wasn’t even the expression; just the way his features built up upon themselves and how Ven was more excitable puppy than the frightened one that this kid was.

“Good morning,” Aqua said politely. She had a way with children, Terra thought, because in the beginning, when Ven wouldn’t even speak to them and would hide away in his room, she’d taken to coaxing him out, little by little. Evidently, she thought it was best right now to start slow. “What’s your name?”

The boy stared. “Rox…as,” he said, voice croaky. Before he recovered, and said angrily, “My name is Roxas. Why am I here?” Oh. Might not have been a good idea to bring him to an abandoned warehouse after all.

“We’ll get to that,” she promised. “I’m Aqua. This is Terra.”

Terra nodded in acknowledgment. Roxas glared at him suspiciously. “Hey.”

“We think you must’ve gone in the wrong car like our Ven,” Aqua continued, and she didn’t sound rushed or stressed at all. In fact, Terra thought amusedly, she was pretty much the perfect epitome of calm. “Do you want to call your family? We can drive you to meet them after.”

For a while, Roxas didn’t talk at all. He looked lost, that was for sure—it must’ve been quite a shock to wake up in a car with two absolute strangers. Maybe it would’ve been better to have a phone ready, Terra thought, and reached in the back of his pocket for his own to offer when Roxas glanced up.

“I don’t know who you think you are, but I’m not going anywhere with you.” He opened the door, glared at them with all the rage of a puppy, as if to prevent them from following, and stepped out of the car, closing the door politely behind him.

Then he tramped off.

Terra glanced at Aqua who looked thoughtful, and then back at Roxas’s departing back as he went through the calf-deep snow and into the warehouse.

“Options?” Terra asked.

“I think talking to him should be fine.”

“Who knows,” Terra mused, unbuckling his seatbelt and Aqua doing the same. Maybe letting Roxas have some time to cool off or gather his thoughts was a good idea before going after him? “We should—”

…Wait a second.

Terra leaned over Aqua (“Squeeze over.”) and squinted.

“What’s wrong?” Aqua asked, unconcerned with the fact that Terra was probably squishing her against her seat.

The snow level here was lower than the other places they’d been at. He hadn’t been paying much attention earlier, but he was pretty sure someone had snow plowed the area recently. A glance at the doorway, and then at the windows and other entrances revealed a concern.

“Maybe it’s just me,” Terra said slowly, leaning back, “but I’m pretty sure they _lock_ and board up abandoned warehouses.”

And that’s when gunshots fired. 

\--

Sora was starving. That much was clear. Ven could see him chomping away at his burger like it was no big deal. Ven’s first fast food meal (Master Eraqus always insisted on taking care of your body, so junk food and any sort of guilty pleasure had been banned, and y’know, Master Eraqus could tell if you’d broken one of his precepts so Ven always tried hard not to) was supposed to be with Aqua and Terra. Terra had promised, and he’d promised to convince Aqua to allow it.

Now, Ven was stranded somewhere with people he didn’t know (they were nice people, even Sora, who preferred to jump into action instead of listening—then again, Aqua often said he was like that whenever he wasn’t sure on what the right course of action was to do), and he wasn’t even able to have lunch with the people he loved the most. It was kind of a dumb reason, but Terra and Aqua always genuinely liked doing the dumb things he wanted to do, and he felt horrible for just being so picky.

He should be grateful. And he was.

“Y’all right there, Ven?” Goofy asked.

“Yeah,” Ven said, and tried to grin. “Sorry. I’m just. I’m just worried.”

“You can say you’re scared,” Donald said gently. Ven had been almost frightened of him earlier—from such a small man, Ven had had the most brutal tongue-lashing of his life. It was one thing with Master Eraqus, who only looked disappointed at you and that was the worst kind of punishment there was. Terra and Aqua didn’t yell at all; still, though, Ven thought that Donald probably had adopted him too into this family, and for that, he was also really grateful.

“I’m not scared,” Ven affirmed. “I’m just worried.”

Aqua hadn’t been picking up her phone, and neither had Terra. He understood that maybe Terra had been driving, but—had something happened?

It’d been years since he’d been a kid like Sora; maybe a decade. He’d been prone to some rash decisions, and he hadn’t entirely broken out of the habit (it never failed to frustrate him when people thought he was younger than he looked, and his lack of height from the time he’d spent in that coma—weren’t people supposed to grow in them?—hadn’t helped either). But now, even an adult, Ven didn’t know where to begin.

“Is there anyone else you could contact?”

Ven shook his head. “Master Eraqus went back to Japan to visit his family,” he said. “Asides from that, Terra and Aqua are my family.”

“You’ll find them again.”

Ven blinked, and then stared at Sora, who was grinning. “What?”

“You’ll find them again,” Sora repeated slowly, but his smile was very big. “You’re connected to them, Ven, just as they’re connected to you. They’ll be safe and sound, and so will you. We’ll even help you look, right guys?”

Ven stared, stunned, as Donald and Goofy both gave each other a smile, and said, “Right!”

\--

If there was any time Terra was glad he’d trained under Master Eraqus, now was a good one. The door hadn’t locked behind Roxas, only jammed a bit, and by the time he’d slammed it open with his shoulder, Roxas hadn’t been far off before he darted out through the opening Terra had made.

“There are _people with guns there_!” he was shrieking, wielding a metal pipe in his white knuckled grip that nearly bashed Terra’s skull as he was passed to Aqua’s keeping. Fierce.

Terra glanced around the door, and then caught sight of the man collapsed on the floor, and then further through at the people shouting, waving guns. “What are the odds?” he demanded, half to himself, before slamming the door closed, just as several bullets hit it. They didn’t even going through, which was telling him _exactly how abandoned this thing had been_. What was this, bulletproof? “C’mon, c’mon—”

Aqua had been training with him just as long as he could remember, so she knew instinctively what needed to happen, and how big the threat could be expected to be from how fast he moved. “Back to the car, Roxas,” she murmured, ushering him firmly.

Roxas was more surefooted in the snow than either of them expected. Then again, Ven always had his speed, so maybe there was something to be said about doppelgangers.

“Are those _gangsters?_ ” Roxas demanded, chest heaving, as they all piled into the rental car whose damage deposit Terra was starting to realize they were never going to get back when Roxas’s pipe cracked a window.

“Well,” Terra said conversationally as he started the engine, set it to drive, and jerked the wheel at the same time he slammed the gas. People started appearing out of the warehouse, and one of the gates started lifting, revealing a rather nasty looking black car probably built for speed and armoured. “Let’s look at it this way—this is not a movie, and getting caught by them is not going to advance the plot.”

“You’re safe with us, Roxas,” Aqua said, going to the glove compartment. She checked the magazine of the gun, before sliding it right in and checking the sight as Terra swerved automatically. A barrage of bullets hit the bumper of the car.

Terra glanced quickly behind him and saw Roxas clutching the metal pipe like a lifeline. From the back window, he could sight guys on motorcycles. For real? What was this, a biker gang?

“What— _they’re shooting_ at us—”

“Yeah, the bad guys tend to do that,” Terra joked, but his face wasn’t, and he floored it, turning back to the front. “Aqua.”

“Contrary to what happens in movies,” Aqua said, reassuring Roxas, “You’ll be fine. It’s usually not really that serious or personal.” She glanced past his head, eyes narrowing. “Cover your ears, Roxas.”

“Why do you even have a _gun_?!” Roxas demanded, pressing his hands to his ears.

Aqua quickly leaned out of the window, fired three shots, and pulled back. The recoil was lighter than normal—nice.

“I’m a cop,” she said calmly, cheeks pink from the cold, offering Roxas a gentle smile before turning to Terra. “Extreme left, avoid the caltrops.”

“And I’m a stuntman,” Terra said casually as the car slid along the concrete, a giant screeching of wheels and the burning smell of rubber in the air. Slushy snow had splattered somewhat on the windshields, so he wiped it off quickly. “New gun?”

“We upgraded,” she replied. “Dodge.”

He pulled them left and right before he quickly glanced back and then jerked the car again as the car skidded further than he thought. Aqua didn’t crash into him because of her impeccable balance and Terra never got out of position when he was driving, but Roxas went slamming into the side door.

You could hear the crash of motorcycles and people in the water otherwise. “We’re on vacation, if that helps,” Terra added.

“I’m a student,” Roxas said, gingerly pulling himself up, “and this was supposed to be a _normal_ road trip.”

“Terra, I’ll be out in seven,” Aqua said quietly. “I didn’t bring spare round mags.”

Terra winced. “Make them count?”

“Wait, wait, wait.” They both watched in their own respective ways as Roxas rolled down the window, and threw the pipe out as hard as he could.

It went in the other direction than he’d initially aimed.

Bouncing off the road, it rolled twice, and then dug itself under the wheel of an oncoming motorcycle. Enough to make it swerve and flip the guy riding it right off, it knocked out some of the clique when both rider and vehicle crashed into them and separated the rest from formation.

“Gotcha,” Roxas said. He glanced back. “I think they gave up. They’re not following us anymore.”

Terra looked at Aqua with wide-eyes. “Can we—”

“No.”

\--

Ven tried to be patient most of the time, but it definitely wasn’t his default setting. Mimicking Aqua usually made it easier to keep a level head on his shoulders and copying Terra helped on making sure that he didn’t panic at the unexpected. He’d somewhat lost control of his temper the last few times he and Sora had clashed, which meant he still had a lot to learn. Master Eraqus often did say one of his failings was that he was too impulsive, but Ven hadn’t realized exactly how much he’d failed to uphold his own discipline.

Analyzation. Consideration. Translation into thought into decision into reaction.

Either way, Ven thought, casting a glance at Sora now, there wasn’t much reaction needed.

Sora was bored again. You could tell from the way he tried to not be, either grumpily sinking deep in his seat one second, or nodding off the next. Almost like a kid, before Ven realized: Sora _was_ a kid. He was fourteen. He probably still wrestled with all his friends at home, or spent his time goofing around instead of doing his homework. He kicked grumpily at the seat and readjusted his position constantly because he was restless; definitely not an indoors person. He whined at Donald and Goofy because there was no one else to distract him, and he picked at Ven because he missed his brother, and doubly was in his right to do so.

It was funny what you could glean if you just observed. Ven just hadn’t realized how much.

“We should draw on the windows,” Ven suggested, hoping to alleviate some of that negativity. Not to say that Ven was the one who wanted to draw on the windows; he definitely wasn’t a kid at heart, he was an adult. “Whoever does the fastest.”

“Sure,” Sora said, brightening up. The transformation was kind of fun to watch. “Watch this!”

“Okay,” Ven said, feeling oddly proud of himself for acting like an adult and not letting the dulled throbbing of his black eye get to him. He almost could talk without his swollen upper lip getting in the way too.

Sora drew a picture of a smiley face on the fogged up windows with his finger. Then he gave it spiky hair. “This is you,” he said, helpfully writing Ven below, before violently darkening the eye and then giving huge lips to it. He drew a second smiley face and gave it fluffy hair. “This is me.” ME, he wrote, in big letters. He then drew another face, giving it the exact same spiky hair as he had the first one, and a frown. “This is Roxas.”

“He looks sad,” Ven observed.

“He’s not a people person,” Sora said, but it wasn’t mean at all.

“You’re a big brother, aren’t you?”

Sora just grinned, hands clasping behind his head, and said nothing about that. “What about you, Ven? Tell me about your family.”

Beginning with whom, to start? Ven really didn’t know. There was so much he suddenly wanted to say; he wanted to share everything about the people he cherished and adored, with whom he had spent practically his entire adolescence with.

He told Sora a lot. About Aqua, who had done nothing but always encouraged him, believed in him, always had been there as emotional support, and always was patient enough to hear anything Ven had to say. About Terra, who had always been steady and reliable, a degree or so a little bit easier than everyone else to convince or play a prank on, and he’d always had a great sense of humour to follow. About Master Eraqus, who had introduced him to his dojo in the first place, had taught him how to become a better person, inspired him to look beyond what he could offer.

His window showed a group of three people holding hands (Sora was very quick to point out, to Ven’s dismay, the height difference between the two at the sides and the tiny one in the centre), a fourth one beside them with a mustache, and a fifth bald one on the other side.

“Who’s the bald one?”

“That’s Master Xehanort.”

“Why’s he under arrest?”

“That’s what he does,” Ven said conversationally. “He’s got a bad back.”

Sora nodded gravely. “Yeah, that’s bad in the winter, right?”

“Yeah.”

For a second, Ven thought Sora was going to ask—until it was that Sora squinted at his picture, and then beamed. “I like your family. I can’t wait to meet them.”

“I can’t wait to meet Roxas,” Ven offered almost shyly. 

“Right?” Sora nodded excitedly, bouncing his seat. “You said Aqua and Terra are nice, right?”

“Yeah. They’ll take good care of him. They know their stuff.” Ven reached out, and drew a small sun peeking out the corner of the window, with a smiley face on it.

“Hey, Donaaaaaallldddd,” Sora was saying, draped against the left shoulder of the right seat. “I’m bored. Give me something to do.”

“Read a book,” Donald said from the front.

“No thanks,” Sora sing-songed back. “Ugh. I wonder what Roxas is up to.”

“Probably just the same as you and bothering the navigator,” Donald teasingly, reaching out to flick Sora on the forehead (“Hey!”). “You two are pretty similar, after all.”

\--

Roxas sat back, face drawn dark, knees to his chest. After the adrenaline had burned off, he’d become immensely quiet—the same way he always did with all new situations, trying to figure out his options. Nothing Terra said would make him talk (and for very good reason), and Aqua had already taken the hint that he wasn’t comfortable talking with two people he didn’t really know. For the most part, when it was necessary, she’d ask a few questions in a low tone (“Are you alright? You aren’t hurt anywhere?”) and Roxas would choose whether or not to respond, with a jerky nod,  a shake of the head, or a flicker of his eyes.

“I’m fine,” he hissed, but Aqua had already turned to the front and she and Terra were talking. “Ugh.”

They weren’t bad people, per se. Aqua was kind enough that she could recognize subtle nuances, when there some questions he didn’t feel answering, or there was a certain way she would adapt her statements that helped reassure him. Roxas liked Aqua, even if she kind of acted like he needed to be taken care of and asked about every step of the way.

“Geez,” he grumbled to himself, “I’m not six years old. Don’t mess with me, I’m almost fifteen, I can take you both, even if you two do have cool jobs.”

Terra was okay, but he talked too much about Ven, whose place Roxas had accidentally taken. The thing was, Roxas was his own person, so he didn’t really get the deal why this was so important. Talking about someone who looked almost like him rather than getting to know him personally.

“Seriously?” he whispered furiously. “Who the heck keeps comparing people like that? That’s rude. Really rude. Ruder than Sora.” And Sora was _Sora_ , so nobody else should be copying him, because Sora only got away with doing Sora things because he was who he was.

Really, Roxas really didn’t care if Ven looked like him, or if he acted differently than Ven did, or how they’d get along if Ven and he met. Roxas understood Terra meant it well—he seemed like a cool guy, and maybe in other circumstances, Roxas might’ve liked him—but everything he said was the _wrong kind of thing._

“Why would I be interested in Ven? I don’t know him, and I don’t want to know him.” He sighed and tucked his knees in further. “Ugh. I feel like I’m gonna puke.” Too much anger; Roxas always got sort of queasy sick-feeling when he did.

Anyway, dying his hair blond hadn’t even been on purpose—it’d been an accident. He’d meant to make it something darker or something, to differentiate himself from Sora because Roxas was tired of people mistaking him for someone else, and he wished Terra would get the hint.

“Terra, just pay attention at least. Look back here, Terra, you punk,” Roxas muttered under his breath, shooting the back of Terra’s head an angry look when it didn’t. “Ugh, you’re terra-ble.”

To his horror, Terra and Aqua snorted loudly and subsequently burst out laughing.

“Oh my god,” Roxas, realization dawning on him as he watched them both die with laughter. “Oh my _god._ ” They’d been _listening to him the entire time._

“Sorry to inform you,” Terra said (very un-sorrily) as he chortled, “But sound carries in a car.”

“That was a good pun, Roxas,” Aqua said warmly. “I liked it.”

Roxas felt his whole face grow red. “ _It wasn’t supposed to be a pun!_ ” It was supposed to be mean, not—not funny! “This isn’t fair, stop laughing! _Stop laughing_!”

\--

Maybe, Sora thought, Goofy was the driver because if Donald would’ve gotten road rage and crashed it by now.

“Get your foot off me,” Sora said grumpily, trying to lift it up without sparking Donald’s fuming suspicion.

“This is _my side of the car_ ,” Ven said equally grumpily, digging his heel straight down on Sora’s leg and pinning it down. He was stronger, so Sora wasn’t going anywhere. “I already gave you more than enough.”

“I grew. I deserve this space.”

“In the last five seconds? Give me a break.”

 Sora threw a tissue box at his head, unsurprised when Ven caught it immediately and didn’t bother throwing it back. “Don’t be sarcastic,” Sora said, “That’s Roxas’s thing.”

Ven frowned. “Sorry.”

Sora held out the box of truces. “Cracker?”

“Not really, I’m full from lun—”

Sora shook the box of truces. “Cracker.”

Ven took some. “Thanks,” he said.

“Wak!” Suddenly, _A Duck Walked Up to the Lemonade Stand, and He Said to the Man, Running the Stand_ started playing before Donald hurriedly picked up his phone. “Hello?”

“I bet it’s your brother,” Ven said.

“I bet it’s the police,” Sora said, just to say something funny.

“I hope not. Aqua promised she was off-duty this time.”

Waaait a second here. Sora straightened and gave Ven a second glance, and then back at the phone that Donald was talking through. “Your friend’s a police officer?”

Ven nodded proudly. “Yeah, and Terra’s a stuntman.”

“Well—Goofy’s in the military!” Sora said, because if they were going to show off their friends, Sora was not going to lose. “And Donald’s a doctor!”

“I know,” Ven said wryly. “You told me already.”

“I’m telling you again, then,” Sora said stubbornly. “Get it memorized!”

“As much as it warms my heart that the two of you aren’t fighting anymore,” Donald said, “Aqua’s on the phone for you, Ven.”

Considering how brusque they’d been with each other during this whole trip, it surprised Sora when Ven’s face lit up as soon as he heard the name. The expression made him look like a naturally, genuinely really happy person, not the grumpy, snappy, childish adult that Sora had been throwing taunts back and forth with.

“Thank you.” With careful fingers, Ven took the phone and held it against his ear. “Hello? Hi. Hi, Aqua. Yeah.” He beamed over nine thousand watts. “Yeah, I’m good. I’m safe. Everyone here was really nice.”

“Is Roxas there?” Sora wanted to know. “Can I talk to him?”

Ven held up a hand. “Mm. Yeah. Okay, yeah, we’ll do that. I’ve got it memorized.” He listened a bit as Sora bounced impatiently on the seat. “Hehe, yeah. Sora taught it to me. Uhhh, speaking of Sora, he wants to talk to his brother—Roxas. Yeah?” He paused, then glanced at Sora. “Uh-huh.”

“Roxas doesn’t want to talk on the phone?” Sora asked. “Tell him it’s okay if he doesn’t.”

“It’s not that,” Ven said, listening carefully. “Okay, I’ll tell him.” He covered the speaking end of the phone carefully, before looking at Sora. “Sora, ‘Roxas is too mortified to come to the phone right now’.  His words.”

Sora snorted. “Of course.” He gestured a ‘gimmee’ with his hand. “Just give me the phone, I got this.”

“I’m giving the phone to Sora now, Aqua,” Ven said. “Yeah. Tell Terra that he still owes me fast food.”

“You talk forever, just saying,” Sora said, taking the phone from Ven. Before Ven could do anything except look outrageously embarrassed (because Sora whispered, “You _liiiiikkkeee herrrrr, don’t you_.” “No, I don’t!” and Ven looked like he was telling the truth, only there was something else he wasn’t spilling), Sora put the cell phone to his ear and said, “Hi, Aqua! I’m Sora!”

Aqua’s laugh sounded really pleasant. Man, no wonder Ven had looked like his birthday come early. “Hello Sora,” she said, and he would’ve thought she was a teacher if he hadn’t known otherwise. “It’s very nice to meet you.”

“Yeah, it’s nice to meet you too! How are you?”

“I’m good. We had a minor incident, but all of us are doing well.”

“Have you guys had lunch yet?”

Aqua hummed. “No, not yet.”

“That’s cool. You should go eat lunch first before you meet up with us,” Sora said, because Donald was now inputting something into the GPS and talking to Goofy, and Goofy was looking at the route and nodding. “Are you far?”

“From the meet-up point? I’d say…maybe—oh, nevermind.” A rustle on the phone.

“It’ll take us half an hour,” said the voice of a manly man. Sora was guessing that was Terra.

“Yo,” Sora said.

“Yo, right back,” said an amused Terra.

“How’s my brother?” Sora asked. “I heard he was mortified.”

“Yeah.” The word in itself was a laugh and good-natured. “Apparently he didn’t mean to make a great pun.”

 _“It was supposed to be mean_!” Sora heard Roxas yell in the background. It was the _May the floor swallow me up and leave me to wither away_ voice, so Sora understood immediately that once the embarrassment of the situation went away, Roxas would just push it firmly to the back of his mind and try to forget it only to fail.

“Does he know I’m on the phone?” Sora asked.

“Yeah, pretty sure.”

“Donald,” Sora asked, lowering the phone, “How long until we get to the place? Where are we even meeting up again?”

“Traverse Town. In probably half-an-hour.”

That was kind of weird, what with the same time to destination, almost kind of like they’d all decided to warp to the second-nearest location and go from there. Then again, Terra and Aqua had probably had the place in mind when Roxas had told them (or so Sora was supposing, because if it turned out Ven’s friends were aliens with super powers, Riku was going to be jealous and Sora was going to rub it in when he got back).

“Thanks!” Phone back up against his ear now. Ven was giving him impatient looks, but _ha_ , Sora had the phone now. “Hey, Terra, tell Roxas I can stay on the phone until he feels like talking.”

“…Message delivered,” Terra said, after a few seconds. Then he laughed. “He made a face at me.” Another laugh. “Now he’s giving me the middle finger. Cute.”

“Did it look pinched?”

“If we’re talking about his face, yes.”

“That’s good,” Sora beamed. Roxas was probably just moving onto the stage right now where he tried to settle his embarrassment down and not let it get to him so much—the only problem being, Roxas really wasn’t good at doing that without ranting at least some of it out. “So, the plan is pretty much to talk for half-an-hour, is that okay with you?”

“Guess I won’t be driving then,” Terra mused. “But sure. I’m not sure where we’d begin to talk.”

“That’s fine!” Sora said brightly. “There’s plenty. The weather, the food you ate, the places you guys were planning on going to.” He caught sight of Ven, who was looking at him dourly and holding a hand out for the phone. “No way, Ven,” he said, “I got it first. Also, hey Terra?”

“Yeah?”

“I kind of beat up Ven, but that’s okay right?”

\--

“Your brother,” Terra announced heavily after he hung up the phone because Sora and Ven were getting into a fight about who was going to talk on it next, “beat up Ven.”

“Is he alright?” Aqua asked worriedly.

“Lip and eye. Sora got him good, apparently.”

Aqua sighed heavily, long-suffering. “Boys will be boys, is what you’re going to say?” With a shake of her head, she switched lanes, checking the route on the GPS Terra had been holding up.

“I told you insurance was a good idea,” Terra said.

“It’s only worth it if the person injured is _in_ the car, Terra,” Aqua said calmly, “Right, Roxas?” She caught sight of Roxas’s horrified expression in the mirror, and laughed. “That was a joke.”

“Jokes,” Terra added, when Roxas didn’t speak. “Aqua does that.” She shook her head at him.

“Aren’t you,” Roxas began, and then stopped. Terra waited patiently for him, but Roxas seemed to have trouble finding the words. “Aren’t you mad?”

“Why mad?” With a grin, Terra reached to side of the seat and lowered the back so he was leaning back as far as he could go. Roxas scampered to the side. “About Ven getting hurt? I’m honestly conflicted, really. Proud, impressed, disappointed, upset. But y’know, Ven’s an adult. And Sora seems like a good brother.”

He watched Roxas, who frowned and folded his arms.

“Terra,” Aqua said firmly, reaching over and nudging on his shoulder with one hand. “Pull your seat up, or I’ll cuff you for reckless endangerment of your own life. Roxas,” she said, looking at him through the rear-view mirror, “Don’t think I didn’t see that. Put on your seatbelt.”

“Yes ma’am,” Terra acquiesced. He glanced over at Roxas, who had put on his seatbelt without much of a word. “Hey, Roxas, you all right?”

Roxas glared. “Just leave me alone,” he said. “I’m really not in the mood.” He was probably still angry about the pun thing, which, in Terra’s opinion, wasn’t that big of a deal. Then again, Terra wasn’t fourteen and still finding himself and testing the limits of his comfort zone.

It was a pity Roxas really didn’t seem to like him. Terra actually thought he was pretty cool, though the fact that he did kind of resemble Ven might’ve helped his overall opinion. He studied him a bit, wondering whether or not it was worth the push one more time, feeling the side of his mouth tug up. “Roxas.”

Good catch.

Roxas stared at the phone in his hand, then back up. His eyes were shifty and narrowed, like he thought that made him look like he knew exactly what Terra was up to, but Terra didn’t miss the way his fingers curled around it.

“Thanks, I guess,” Roxas said shortly. Terra figured that was good enough.

\--

Between the two of them, Donald had constantly been wondering under his breath why he’d decided to sign up as a chaperone, and Goofy had constantly been enjoying the ups and smoothing out the wrinkles that came with the downs. Not much different than how they’d been when they’d somehow come to know the King and get involved in his ever helter-skelter lifestyle. Mickey had been a great sport, and an even greater amigo out of an unlikely circumstance.

Many a travel had been spent in Goofy’s car, but it never felt any different: the two of them on an impromptu desire to see the world, and the third unexpected rider at the back of their car.

History had not only a tendency to repeat itself, but it made good, lifelong friends from unorthodox mishaps. Goofy believed in this for certain.

Despite the initial scare they’d had when they’d lost Roxas, and accidentally taking someone else instead, it’ll all turned out just fine at the end of the day. It was even better still that Donald had made it this far without returning them to the start; in thankfulness, Goofy pat him on the back, and Donald’s expression was more harassed than Roxas’s could ever hope to be, even as Sora raced out of the car like his tail-end had been lit aflame, and Ven had gingerly climbed out of it after him.

“I’ll be glad when this is over,” Donald mused, clearly trying to draw out the current peace and quiet out as much as he could. “I don’t think I could take any more kids.”

“Maybe Terra and Aqua would be willing to put them all in theirs?” Goofy suggested.

“Are you kidding?” Donald demanded, and this was really where you could see his true colours—for all his complaints, Donald really actually was fond of kids. “The back would be too quiet.”

 --

The thing was, Roxas didn’t even have time to get out of the car before Sora ran out of nowhere and half-slammed his hands on the window and half smushed his face against the glass. “Roxas!” he said happily. It had been one thing, to be the one to call Sora back and have his brother’s voice on the phone and talk. It was quite another to see him, pig-nose and all, looking as though he’d missed Roxas as much as Roxas had him.

“You took your time,” Roxas tried to say crossly. With other people, they’d have interpreted it as something different entirely, but Sora knew how to read him. The grin that welcomed him was stretched from ear to ear, and Roxas wore it right back, even when Sora’s face came off the car with a noisy pop.

He barely had time to unbuckle his seatbelt before Sora jimmied open his door with an impatient hand (until Aqua decided to take pity on them both and unlocked the doors even when the car wasn’t even parked yet), reached in, and yanked him out with a lot more force than Roxas had expected. One arm wrapped itself around Roxas’s neck and jerked his head close to Sora’s own, before Sora practically frogmarched him from the car.

“Anything?” Sora said, smile losing itself into unhidden concern, voice low.

With how many times Roxas had to remind Sora to worry about things that Sora would otherwise not worry about, sometimes Roxas forgot about who was the older one. He didn’t think Sora did, because Sora, who wore his heart on his sleeve, whose every emotion showed on his face, who couldn’t lie even if he wanted to, always had made it his number one mission to make sure Roxas was okay first.

It felt gratifying and reassuring like always to have this.

“Yeah,” Roxas said, heart warming. “I’m fine. Promise.”

“Good.”

“So,” Roxas said. He’d told Sora he was okay, and he meant it (sometimes he didn’t, so Sora usually hung back from saying anything else and waited). In all honesty, he didn’t think he’d like Ven, but sometimes Roxas was a little meaner than he needed to be. He was sure Ven was a good guy otherwise. “I heard you beat up my look-a-like.”

Sora’s grin split from ear to ear. “Oh man, Roxas! I gotta show you to him, he looks _just like you!_ ”

“Yeah,” Roxas said dryly, as Sora pulled him back in the direction of Terra’s car with new, fervent energy. “That’s usually what ‘look-a-like’ means.”

**\--**

“I apologize for all of this trouble,” Aqua began, after they all had shook hands, introductions had been made, and they all watched the kids get to know each other. Ven had lingered for a while, quiet and patient, until Sora and Roxas had appeared and dragged him off to their own circle. “Roxas mentioned you wanted to go to Chicago?”

“Chicago, Chinotgo,” Donald waved off impatiently. He’d never been much for staying angry or frustrated for long, and Chicago had been just a suggestion out of the long list of places they’d wanted to visit while they still were young and had the time. “It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.”

“Besides, if we’re apologizing,” Goofy replied. “We’d have to say the same for you. And a thank you for taking care of Roxas for us.”

She laughed. “And us for Ven.” She cast a wry glance at Ven, who was arguing with Sora about something while Roxas just stared, mystified at the boy wearing his face. “I think this was good for him. He doesn’t really try to get to know strangers.”

“That’s why they’re called strangers,” Terra said helpfully.

Goofy chuckled. “But, since we’re all already here, why don’t we stay? I hear Traverse Town has a hotel. There’s a wizard’s hut somewhere, there’s a fountain—make like a villager. Live in here for a while.”

“We’d have to ask them first,” Donald reminded them. “Get the okay.” In all honesty, this was probably why no matter how many times Sora, Roxas, and Ven had to sit through his angry lecturing, Donald would probably be their favourite.

“Gwarsh, sure looks like they’re having fun,” Goofy said, half-amused, just as Sora was reaching out to touch Ven’s face. “But I wouldn’t say no to some downtime.”

That was when they heard Ven, in the loudest voice they’d ever heard him, yell: “I said, no way!”

\--

“C’mon,” Sora was insisting, “Just one picture!”

“Why do you even want my picture?” Ven demanded, dodging with the very speed that Terra had described with very minute proud detail, which really came down to the fact that he was faster than Roxas, and therefore faster than Sora.

Terra had said they’d all kind of trained under the same master. It did kind of explain how Roxas had managed to get out of that situation _alive_ , because at the time, his legs had been shaking under him, and he’d probably have had been more likely to knock himself out if he had been alone.

Covering up the camera lens with a hand and weaving in a very deliberate pattern (Sora was way too obvious, Roxas thought) to avoid Sora’s attempt at shoving it up his nostrils, Ven demanded, “Do you want to immortalize your brutal battering of a stranger?”

Roxas snorted.

(“He’s camera shy,” Aqua whispered to Goofy.

“That is definitely not the case,” Terra whispered on Goofy’s other side, as they watched Ven start trying to wrestle the camera from Sora’s hands, the biggest combination of half-smile and half-horror on his face.)

“Partly that,” Sora agreed. (Donald put his face in his hands, and Goofy laid a careful hand on his shoulder.) “But also as a souvenir for Riku!”

Roxas’s laughter cut off abruptly. “You aren’t serious,” he said.

“I’m really serious!” Sora tried to look convincing (eyebrows furrowed, looking hopeful), which wasn't convincing at all. “I want to pretend I beat up Roxas for him!”

(“Aqua, can we—”

“No.”)

“ _Really_ , Sora?” Roxas demanded. “I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to side with Ven for this.” He nodded at Ven, who nodded back in solidarity.

“I told him I’d get him a souvenir!” Sora protested, uselessly trying to click the shutter away.

“Get him a mug,” Roxas retorted. “Number One Bara Boy.”

“This is why he never wants to come around when you’re home,” Sora accused. Roxas rolled his eyes, reached out, and pried the camera from those stubborn-ass fingers.

Among those who’d grown up with them, Riku had been the pettiest. All Roxas could even faintly recall about the incident was that he’d been pissed, ignored Riku for the entire evening, and Riku had never forgiven him for it. It figured. Rain or shine, Riku held grudges like no tomorrow.

“Whatever,” Roxas shrugged, as Sora made a face at him. Almost idly, he wondered, _What pictures did you guys even take_ , before he started scrolling through it, holding it out to Ven to do a check. “Just get him something from the heart. He’ll appreciate it if he knows what’s good for him.”

Fun taken out of the sport, Sora had regulated himself to just snickering. “Whaaa-?” Sora slid his hands to a clasp behind his head. “That’s boring. We should get him something he’d like.”

“What’s with this ‘we’?” Roxas demanded, as he went through a picture of some blurry trees and some blurry fast food. “I’m getting souvenirs for Namine and Xion, and that’s it. You can get it for everyone else.” He glanced beside him, at Ven. “What about you?”

Ven blinked. “You mean like Christmas presents? I’ve already made them.”

“‘Made them’,” Sora repeated, giving a squinty Donald glare while pursing his lips. “By hand?” Considering Sora messed up everything he tried to make by hand, Roxas wouldn’t have been surprised if his brother believed only elves in Santa’s workshop could make passing hand-made presents.

“Yeah,” Ven said, completely innocent, blinking. “I do that with all my presents. It means more, if it’s made by you.”

“I think I like him,” Roxas announced loudly, to Sora’s scowl.

“Thank you!” Ven beamed, and his face brightened like the sun that Roxas usually pulled a curtain over or wore sunglasses to protect his eyes against. “Everyone liked them a lot, and this year, Terra taught me how to knit, so—”

Terra, Roxas thought, had very misleading skills. He watched a bit as Sora and Ven squabbled on whether or not knitted presents counted as hand-made (“It’s hand- _knit_! It doesn’t count!” “It does too!” “Nu-uh!” “Yu-uh!”).

“Y’know,” Roxas said boredly, lifting up the camera to snap away at the group of adults. Terra was leaning on the car, Aqua was laughing, Donald actually looked like he was having fun, and Goofy had noticed and waved. Roxas waved back. “Figuring out presents would be a lot easier if we could just send out homemade Christmas cards to everyone on the list.” Not that Roxas liked those or bought ugly Christmas sweaters in eager anticipation, or anything.

“We should do that,” Sora said excitedly, bouncing on his toes. “Then hang out.”

“I think we’re going back two days before Christmas, actually,” Ven said.

“Aww.” Sora’s _hair_ was pretty much drooping as much as his eyes were. “You mean we can’t hang out at all?”

“Absolutely not if you’re going to keep beating me up,” Ven replied, all in good temper.

“Can’t I still take the picture?” Sora asked, making grabby hands. “More incentive. C’mon, please? You’re actually pretty cool.”

“Well.” From a glance, Roxas could already tell that Ven was contemplating it. He was so going to fold. “Okay,” Ven admitted. “But don’t go telling your friend Riku you beat up your brother. That’s not nice.”

Okay. Ven was a nice guy. Roxas liked him.

“Whoo-hoo!” Sora hooted, clearly not paying attention to the rest of Ven’s words before he rushed into the throng of adults, shouting, “Group picture! Everyone line up, we’re doing group pictures!” He hopped around them as though to herd them like an energetic sheep dog on a sugar rush, tugging at wrists and hands and shoving at coats and jackets.

“I don’t really like being in pictures,” Roxas admitted, as they watched Sora get into a tug-of-war contest with Donald’s arm.

“It’s a little easier with friends,” Ven said reassuringly. He had a very bright attitude about him, and probably a very good outlook at life. “Not so much on your own. I’m glad for my family. And, really." He smiled again. "It’s a pleasure to have met you, Roxas.”

\--

When they took the picture, it was with Donald and Goofy at one side, Terra and Aqua on the other, and Sora, Roxas, and Ven in the middle. Sora’s arm was looped right around his neck, Ven had ended up almost shyly offering his arm for Roxas to loop his own around.

And Roxas? Roxas was smiling like Roxas did.

All things considered, it'd been a great enough road trip.

 

end.

**Author's Note:**

> WHISPERS TO YOU [JAY DREW A BEAT UP VEN AND A GRUMPY SORA](http://yourhandiheld.tumblr.com/post/71613871035/i-have-not-been-drawing-all-winter-break-its) AND THEY'RE SO CUTE I'M SCREECHING


End file.
